Sir – R Wilcock’s letter (Craven Herald, August 8) asked if Craven District Council intends to extend the town boundary to the bypass. It does.
The government has ordered council officers to allocate a ten year supply of building land in a new Local Plan, so officers are allocating land for nearly a thousand homes.
Only sites not built on by the time the Local Plan is approved can count, so that excludes Granville Street and Brewery Lane and probably Elsey Croft and Greatwood.
The allocation means a transformation in the size and density of Skipton.
A Community Engagement Event was held last month at Belle Vue Mills where officers produced a plan to infill in all directions between the current town and the bypass.
The sites include not only the Tarn Moor Estate land at White Hills Lane that concerns R Wilcock, but also the fields around the Homeloan building on Gargrave Road and across to White Hills Lane and Rockwood.
On the plan are also Park Hill as well as further land at Elsey Croft, Horse Close and Greatwood. Under threat also are fields between the canal and Cawder Lane as far as Cawder Ghyll, fields adjoining Burnside estate, fields at Overdale and fields beyond Aireville Park to the bypass - even the Auction Mart site.
Anyone can comment on the proposals at www.cravendc.gov.uk/SHLAA or call in at the offices. Because land already built on cannot count in the allocations, even if Tarn Moor Estate gets planning permission it could benefit Skipton by not developing until after the Local Plan is in place, so that the houses at least count towards the total.
Otherwise, Craven District Council will simply add in another green field somewhere else for 55 more houses to make up its quota.
Claire Nash, Skipton
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